We picked up Cailyn at around 3:00. And yesterday at 3:00, in case you were
basking in the coolness of air conditioning at the time, was hot. I didn’t look at the temperature, but I sure
felt it first-hand. Cailyn, of course,
headed straight for the playground. Great. It’s a lot of fun on cooler days, but what
miseries would this day bring? I communicated
my concerns to Cailyn, but she quickly assured me that “It’ll be all right
DadDad. I just have to show you.” Well, as it turned out, what she had to show
me was just the ticket. We crawled up
onto the top of the highest slide, at which point, right before you slide
downward, there in a tiny little housetop.
And underneath that housetop?
That’s right. Shade. And a cool breeze to boot. I happily followed her up there, and she
crawled into my lap. We sat there for a
while, just talking about her day. Seems
someone had sprayed Lysol into the fire alarm and set it off, resulting in an
unplanned fire drill. A couple of the
engines responded, so Cailyn apparently took charge of the situation with her
classmates, assuring them that all would be fine because she knew the names of
some those fire fighters. Not sure how
her knowing names makes everything all right, but I was sure inspired to
redouble my efforts at learning the guys’ names.
Last night Kel and Christina brought their
kids over for a while so they could go on a date, and our evening turned into a
chaotic mix of games and wrestling and rocking babies. Aside from their usual assortment of laps
through the office, into the hall, around into the kitchen, back down the other
hall and into the office again, there were some unexpected moments. Noa found my old phone. It’s the one with my picture dressed as Superman
on the case. She actually recognized me,
and carried it around the house telling everyone it was DadDad. It only slowed her down a moment when she
first saw me in person. She looked at
the picture, then up at me, then back down at the picture. A big grin came over her face. She proudly held the phone up for me to see,
and declared “DadDad.” Then with her
other hand she pointed up at me and made a second declaration, “DadDad.” That’s my girl. I understand that at home the other day
Christina was doing her best to get Noa to say “I love you.” Over and over she tried, “Noa, say I love you
I love you,” all to no avail. Suddenly,
Kel walked up. Noa turned to him and
immediately said, “Love you.” Sorry,
Mommy.
Jachin and I talked some football. We had to look up the score of the Broncos
game. It went into overtime, so he
missed the end. Sadly, the Broncos
lost. Micah and Josiah were in a world
of their own. They were taking turns
misshaping each other’s faces to look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and
shortening his nickname to a simple “Dam” (with a short vowel sound on that
letter “a,” of course). Nothing quite
like having a valid excuse to say what is disallowed in any other circumstance. Must have been an effective movie. Oh, and we did play a rousing game of hide
and seek. On my turn I raced as fast as I
could around the track to catch Micah. Didn’t
come close. But I did manage to get what
feels like a stone bruise on my heel. Still
hurts this morning.
Then just as they were leaving we got a
text from April asking if they had left Cailyn’s cheerleader backpack
here. A quick search gave that answer … Nope. So we ran over to Weis, the school where they
practice, and sure enough, there it was, sitting forlornly next to the doors of
the school, just waiting for a valiant rescuer.
Happy to fill that role.
Psalms 147:10-11 says, “His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in
the legs of a man; the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope
in his unfailing love.”
Father, thank you for chances, even as old
as I am, to be a trusted one, a recognized one, a horsing-around one, and well,
a rescuer. Makes me feel a little more
like you. Amen.
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